It is assumed that all people share a common interest in health and illness, but when ethnomedical beliefs are compared with those of Western medicine, similarities and differences may be found in terms of cognitive differentiation in definition and recognition of illness, treatment, modalities on the basis of beliefs about probable etiology, and social constraints on cognitive predispositions during the selection process from among alternative care/cure systems. Cross-cultural comparison of decision making in migrant family choices of health care systems are expected to reveal factors influencing choices, critical points at which choices are made, and alternatives for action based on the outcome of choice. The proposed research has two broad objectives: 1) To compare and contrast cognitive and social aspects of health seeking involved in choices by seasonal agricultural families from among alternative health care systems; and 2) To identify probable points for intervention by health professionals toward improving the quality of health of these families. This field research uses anthropological methods (ethnoscience and social-network) of data gathering and analysis. The ethnoscience method obtains information primarily from the viewpoints of the informants rather than from that of health professionals; social network analysis allows description of the interaction of lay-referral systems with cross-cultural cognitive variability. Setting is a four county region of north central Washinton state. Target population is multiethnic families of migrant/seasonal farm workers.